Reading Philosopher's Stone
by MissJackson798
Summary: The Dursleys, Dudley's gang, and most of the Harry Potter characters get together to read the books. Rated T cause I'm paranoid. All canon couples, new characters turning up every five chapters :)
1. Prologue

_So if you are wondering, my PJO story is still coming but I'm having major writer's block for Jake right now, and I've been pining for a good Dursley reading for a while now so I thought I might as well! I am planning on them reading all seven books with new characters turning up every five chapters. Just so you know, no people will be returning from the dead to read with them, as much as I would love for people to be back (sad face). Anyways, this has been a long A/N so let's begin!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the other characters from the HP series, all rights go to JK Rowling. I own nothing in bold._

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Prologue

The residents of Number Four, Privet Drive were sitting happily at home, being contently normal, as they liked to call it, as they went about their daily Saturday routine. They were currently pretending that the past year's events had not occurred, as they were in hiding because of a boy whom they thought was the biggest nuisance known to mankind. It was because of this boy, also known as the one and only, Harry Potter, that they had to completely drop their lives in an attempt to save them. They were gone for a year before returning to Privet Drive to pick up their lives from where they had been left off.

This had all happened a month ago. After cleaning the place up - it had been ransacked to some extent by unknown assailants, much to Petunia Dursley's grief - they had started to go about their daily routine's as though they had never left. Harry Potter had not returned to number four, Privet Drive, and the Dursleys were not given much information upon the return to their home. All they were told was that Lord Moldylort or whatever his name was, had been vanquished and that there was no longer any threat to them. They were not given any info on the whereabouts of their nephew, and they didn't know whether he was even alive! So, on this particular Saturday, unbeknownst to them, their lives were about to be forced back into the terror that the past year had inflicted upon them, by … Reading.

At that very moment, the Dursley's were having lunch with Dudley's 'little friends' Piers, Malcolm and Gordon, sitting in the Dursley's sparkling clean kitchen. Everything was peaceful until suddenly - Crack - a sound like a whip burst into the kitchen and three women, two of them red-heads, the other a bushy-haired brunette, popped out of nowhere. The Dursley's guests jumped back in surprise, the Dursleys themselves remaining seated at the table, having gotten used to strange people popping up randomly in their time abroad. 'What the hell?!' exclaimed Gordon and the rest of his friends who were staring in amazement, and terror at the two ladies in front of them. One of the women was quite a bit older than the other, obviously her mother, and was a plump woman, with a kindly face. The younger one, looked about seventeen, and was extremely pretty. She was holding something in her hands and carefully placed it on the kitchen counter. It was a simple, brown-paper parcel, with nothing on it except for the Dursley's address and each of the family member's individual names. 'Who the bloody hell are you and what are you doing in my house?!' Vernon screamed at the women.

They turned to face the Dursleys, their faces impassive. 'My name is Molly Weasley,' the older woman said. 'This is my daughter Ginny Weasley and her friend Hermione Granger. We were sent by Minerva McGonagall, the current Headmistress at Hogwarts, and Kingsley Shacklebolt, the current Minister for Magic, to bring you this package. We don't know what's in it or why we specifically had to bring it to you, but that's all we know.' she finished. Her daughter, Ginny, had seemed to finally notice the guests that the Dursleys had over.

'Mum, we kind of have a problem.' she said pointing to the boys, who were only just getting over their initial shock and were studying the two ladies as if they were bonkers, with the exception of Malcolm, who was now looking Ginny and Hermione up-and-down.

'Well, we could always Obliviate them, though I doubt Minerva would have sent us here at this time not knowing there were unknowing Muggles in the house. We'll just have to explain things for them, Kingsley and Minerva must have their reasoning.' Molly murmured to Ginny. Everyone else in the room was still staring at them. 'Mr and Mrs Dursley, would you mind having a word with me in the other room?' Molly said to them. Vernon looked as if he was about to argue but Petunia nudged him in the ribs. He gave her an incredulous look and they left the room followed by Mrs Weasley. Ginny and Hermione stayed in the room with Dudley and his friends.

'So, which one of you is Dudley?' Hermione asked the four boys. Dudley, obviously the biggest and the leader, raised his hand. She motioned for him to come closer, for a private word. He obliged, blushing furiously as he did. 'I assume you know all about Harry and the wizarding world?' Ginny asked him. He nodded his head. "Well me, Hermione and my mum were sent here at this specific time for a reason, so I guess your friends being here isn't a coincidence. We have to tell them the truth about Harry.' she said. The only answer she got was Dudley looking confused.

'You know Harry?' he asked her.

'Well, I better considering he's my boyfriend.' Dudley just looked at her, dumbstruck.

They turned to face the other three boys in the room. Ginny hastily explained all about the wizarding world and that Harry was a wizard. She was met by disbelieving looks.

'You mean to tell us,' said Gordon, gesturing to his peers. 'that magic actually exists?! And that Potter, of all people, is a wizard? How dumb do you think we are?' He said and continued to laugh with his friends. Ginny gave an exasperated sigh. There was nothing else for it. She took out her wand (which only caused the boys to laugh more) and whispered Wingardium Leviosa under her breath. Next thing the boys knew all every loose thing in the kitchen was flying around above their heads. It all settled itself back into its original position.

Ginny was smirking. 'S-So it's all true then? Magic d-d-does exist?' Piers stammered, looking awed but slightly terrified.

'Yes, and my mother, Hermione and I are witches and Dudley's cousin, Harry, is a wizard.' Ginny said, simply. Just then a very disgruntled Mr Dursley re-entered the room with his wife and Mrs Weasley.

'Is everything cleared up then? Do the boys know everything?' asked Mrs Weasley. Her daughter nodded, gesturing for her to continue.

They all walked over to the package that was still sitting on the counter. When no one moved to unwrap it, Ginny huffed and started to peel the paper off.

Inside were seven books, each varying in thickness and size. They all had blank covers except for one, the thinnest. The only words on it was the title Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. "What's this rubbish? Who sent us books about that idiot boy?" Vernon exclaimed, his face gradually turning purple. To answer his question, there was a blazing light, and a few seconds later, a small hand-written note floated down from the ceiling and onto the pile of books. It read:

_Hello residents of number four, Privet Drive._

_We, being the ones who sent you, have organised this little get-together._

_None of you are allowed to leave the house while you are reading these books._

_No time will have passed in the world outside the house._

_You will be reading until you have finished all seven books._

_Any supplies you may need are continuously restocked and you will never run out in the time you are staying here._

_If any damage comes to this books, it will be repaired immediately and you will continue to read._

_The books have been enchanted to read themselves aloud._

_The house you are currently residing in has been magically extended to accommodate everyone evenly. There are name plates on the rooms so there is to be no confusion._

_To clarify:_

_These books are about the life of one, Harry James Potter._

_The reason you are reading these, is because many of you are wondering what has happened to Harry Potter._

_Though some of you have seen him recently, you are still wondering about what has happened throughout his life._

_The rest of you are wondering as to where he has disappeared for the past few years._

_These books do not lie. They show nothing but the truth._

_Please remember, we're aiming this at you Ginevra Weasley, these events are from the past and have already happened. There is no need to take action for it now, and there is no need to judge the people involved because you cannot change the past._

_Sincerely Yours,_

_M.M, K.S, J.K.R, and L.L_

After everyone had finished reading the note (Ginny blushing to her roots), they proceeded, some whining in anger and annoyance (*cough* Vernon *cough*), to the living room, where they each took a seat. The book was opened to the first page by Mrs Weasley and it spoke in a soft, dreamlike voice, very similar to that of Luna Lovegood's, and began:

**Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone**

**Chapter One: The Boy Who Lived**

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_So there it is! Love it? Hate it? Tell me in a review! Sorry if the Dursley's were a bit OOC but the reason Petunia stopped Vernon from complaining was because she regretted not being able to make-up with her sister before she died, and spending time with wizards for a year really brought that out of her, and she became slightly more hospitable towards them. I didn't have Ginny explain too much to the boys because they would find out everything the same way Harry and we did in the books. So please R&R? It would mean the world to me and it would also mean another chapter!_

_I also have a schedule for when it comes to updating my stories, which a Guest reviewer gave me the idea for._

_Sunday: Nothing turning up here quite yet..._

_Monday: Nothing turning up here quite yet..._

_Tuesday: This Harry Potter Fanfic_

_Wednesday: The PJO High School Fanfic_

_Thursday: Random one-shots every once in a while_

_Friday: This Harry Potter Fanfic_

_Saturday: The PJO High School Fanfic_

_Yours Sincerely,_

_MissJackson798_


	2. Chapter One

_Here it is! Sorry about the ending but it can't be helped, as I'll explain below. Hope you like their reactions, and that you don't think they are OOC because I'm trying not to make them like that!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the other characters from the HP series, all rights go to JK Rowling. I own nothing in bold._

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Chapter One

**Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they simply didn't hold with such nonsense.**

Vernon and Petunia nodded their agreement while the magical ladies and were offended.

**Mr Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

'That is something yet to be debated.' Ginny said, smirking. Hermione giggled behind her hand while Dudley scowled. They didn't even know him.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. Mrs Potter was Mrs Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs Dursley pretended she didn't have sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street.**

'And what's that supposed to mean? There's nothing wrong with Harry!' Ginny screamed at the Dursleys angrily.

'They're obviously talking about a different boy, then.' Vernon murmured to Petunia, who didn't comment. Vernon chuckled darkly at his own joke.

**The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son too, but they had never seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

**When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work and Mrs Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his highchair.**

**None of them noticed a large tawny owl flutter past the window.**

**At half-past eight, Mr Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs Dursley on the cheek and tried to kiss Dudley goodbye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. 'Little tyke,' chortled Mr Dursley as he left the house.**

'Your encouraging that?' said a shocked Mrs Weasley. 'What horrible parenting!'

Petunia looked disbelievingly at her, like Mrs Weasley was a hypocrite for lecturing her about bad parenting, but she didn't say anything. She may be warming up to wizards slightly, but this was the woman who raised the children and was married to man who destroyed half their living room and gave Dudley a giant tongue just a few years ago.

**He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar - a cat reading a map.**

'Bet you 5 Galleons that's McGonagall.' Ginny whispered to Hermione.

'You're on!' she whispered back.

**For a second, Mr Dursley didn't realise hat he had seen - then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive - no looking at the sign; cats couldn't read map or signs. Mr Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove towards town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks. Mr Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes - the get-ups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt - these people were obviously collecting for something … yes, that would be it.**

'You Muggles will go to any length to ignore magic, won't you?' Ginny said.

She got sheepish looks in return.

**The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr Dursley arrived in the Grunnings car park, his mind back on drills.**

**Mr Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might of found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead.**

'Why are there so many owls?' asked Ginny. Mrs Weasley and Hermione both had an inkling of what day it was but neither answered.

**Most of them had never seen an owl at night-time. Mr Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. He was in a very good mood until lunch-time, when he thought, he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the baker's opposite.**

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**'The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard -'**

**'- yes, their son Harry -'**

Petunia and all the witches including Ginny now knew what day it was.

**Mr Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone and had almost finished dialling his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache thinking … no, he was being stupid. Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry.**

'You don't know your own nephew's name? And they call you Harry's family.' said Mrs Weasley, shaking her head.

**He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. There was no point in worrying Mrs Dursley, she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her - if he'd had a sister like that … but all the same, those people in cloaks …**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

**'Sorry,' he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr Dursley realised that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passers-by stare: 'Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating this happy, happy day!'**

The Muggles looked intrigued while the witches looked down darkly.

**And the old man hugged Mr Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

**Mr Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

'You don't approve of imagination?! How did Harry ever survive here?' Ginny screamed at the Dursleys, who didn't answer, in fear of angering this witch more and being turned into dung beetles or something.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw - and it didn't improve his mood - was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

Ginny gave Hermione a pointed look.

**'Shoo!' said Mr Dursley loudly.**

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look. Was this normal cat behaviour, Mr Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs Dursley had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ('Shan't!').**

'Oh, that's lovely!' Mrs Weasley muttered sarcastically under her breath.

**Mr Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living-room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

**'And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern.' The news reader allowed himself a grin. 'Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?'**

**'Well, Ted,' said the weatherman, 'I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early - it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight.'**

'The shooting stars were probably Dedalus Diggle, he does love to over-do-it.' Mrs Weasley told her fellow witches.

**Mr Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters …**

'It is pretty obvious, isn't it?' Hermione said. 'I'm surprised more Muggles didn't notice.'

**Mrs Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. 'Er - Petunia, dear - you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?'**

**As he had expected, Mrs Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

Petunia received glares from the witches.

**'No,' she said sharply. 'Why?'**

**'Funny stuff on the news,' Mr Dursley mumbled. 'Owls … shooting stars … and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today …'**

**'****_So_****?' snapped Mrs Dursley.**

**'Well, I just thought … maybe … it was something to do with … you know … ****_her_**** lot.'**

'I'm sorry, _her lot?_ What exactly is that supposed to mean?' Hermione demanded of the Dursleys.

**Mrs Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name 'Potter'. He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, 'Their son - he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?'**

**'I suppose so,' said Mrs Dursley stiffly.**

**'What's his name again? Howard isn't it?'**

'Hmm, Howard Potter doesn't have quite the same ring to it.' Ginny told Hermione. They both grinned and burst out laughing. The book waited until they calmed down before continuing.

**'Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me.'**

'Harry is a lovely name!' all three witches shouted at Mrs Dursley.

**'Oh, yes,' said Mr Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. 'Yes, I quite agree.'**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as thought it was waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to with the Potters? If it did … if it got out that they were related to a pair of - well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

Queue more glares.

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind … He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on. He yawned and turned over. It couldn't affect them…**

**How very wrong he was.**

**Mr Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no signs of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed in the net street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground.**

Dudley's gang (excluding Dudley) opened their mouths in awe. They didn't think teleporting like that was possible. Then again, for wizards, anything is probably possible.

**The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen in Privet Drive. He was tall, thin and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak which swept the ground and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

The witches smiled sadly. The Muggles just gave them questioning looks which were pointedly ignored.

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realise that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realise he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, 'I should have known.'**

The Muggles looked confused.

**He had found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.**

Dudley's gang members jaws-dropped. They most definitely wanted one. It would be so much easier than having to get up to turn the light off when it's time to go to sleep.

**He clicked it again - the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left in the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street towards number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

'Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall.'

'Yay!' Ginny cheered and did a little dance. 'Pay up.' she said to Hermione, smirking. Disgruntled Hermione handed over the 5 Galleons. Mrs Weasley tutted at the gambling, but didn't comment.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather sever-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

'I knew there was something freakish about that cat!' Mr Dursley shouted his face going purple. When nobody denied him, he sat down again, embarrassed.

**'How did you know it was me?' she asked.**

**'My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly.'**

**'You'd be stiff too if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day,' said Professor McGonagall.**

**'All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here.'**

'Why is everybody celebrating?' Gordon asked, surprising everybody, because despite Vernon's previous outburst, none of the Muggles had said anything.

'You'll probably find out soon.' Was all Hermione told him. He looked annoyed at her answer.

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

**'Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right,' she said impatiently. 'You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no - even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news.' She jerked her head back at the Dursley's dark living room window. 'I heard it. Flocks of owls … shooting stars … Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent - I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense.'**

'Ha! Mum, you think like McGonagall!' Ginny said.

'I take that as a compliment. Professor McGonagall is a very smart woman.' Mrs Weasley said in reply.

Malcolm snickered. 'Owned!' he whispered to Piers, who grinned.

**'You can't blame them,' said Dumbledore gently. 'We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years.'**

The Muggles looked surprised at this, and were eager to find out what was going on.

**'I know that,' said Professor McGonagall irritably. 'But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumours.'**

'Okay, seriously. What's a Muggle?! And who's You-Know-Who?' Piers said exasperatedly.

'A non-magical person.' said Hermione. 'And I'm guessing we'll find out about You-Know-Who soon.'

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on: 'A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?'**

**'It certainly seems so,' said Dumbledore. 'We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a sherbet lemon?'**

'A _what?_' Ginny asked confused.

**'A ****_what?_****'**

'Ha! You sound like McGonagall.' Hermione said, teasing her. Ginny blushed, and Malcolm smiled appreciatively in her direction. She ignored him.

**'A sherbet lemon. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of.'**

**'No, thank you,' said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for sherbet lemons. 'As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -'**

**'My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? all this "You-Know-Who" nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort.' Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two sherbet lemons, seemed not to notice.**

'Who flinches at a name?' laughed Malcolm.

'People who are frightened for their very lives.' Mrs Weasley told him. He looked at her confused. The witches were long since scared of the name, having gotten used to it in the past few years. It took Mrs Weasley a while, but she got over it. It was now Fred's name she couldn't handle. The pain was just too much.

**'It all gets so confusing if we keep saying "You-Know-Who". I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name.'**

** 'I know you haven't,' said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. 'But your different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know - oh, all right, Voldemort - was frightened of.'**

**'You flatter me,' said Dumbledore calmly. 'Voldemort had powers I will never have.'**

**'Only because you're too - well - noble to use them.'**

**'It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs.'**

'Too much information, Dumbledore.' Ginny said. Mrs Weasley and Hermione laughed quietly, reminiscing in the memories of Dumbledore.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, 'The owls are nothing to the rumours that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared?**

**About what finally stopped him?'**

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold hard wall all day, for neither as cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now.**

Dudley and his gang were quite anxious to hear what it was too, though they were not to admit that. This book was about Potter, after all.

**It was plain that whatever 'everyone' was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true.**

**Dumbledore, however, was choosing another sherbet lemon and did not answer.**

**'What they're saying,' she pressed on, 'is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're - dead.'**

Mrs Weasley sniffled while Ginny and Hermione looked down sadly. They were both thinking that they were glad Harry wasn't there right now to hear this. Dudley and his gang looked shocked, they had never known how Harry's parents had died, and they had made fun of him for having no parents and flaunting their families right in front of him. Vernon remained impassive. He didn't care whether they were alive or dead, really. They're freaks anyway.

The thing that shocked everyone (even the book) into silence, was the small sob that came from Mrs Dursley. She had tears streaking down her face and was sobbing silently.

'Petunia? What's wrong?' Vernon asked, stunned.

Petunia didn't answer. Instead she ran into the small, downstairs bathroom. She emerged ten minutes later with dry eyes and a proud look on her face, as if she dared anyone to question her about what had just happened. No one dared.

The book stared to read again.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

**'Lily and James … I can't believe it … I didn't want to believe it … Oh, Albus …'**

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. 'I know … I know …' he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. 'That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. But - he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone.'**

Besides the witches, everyone looked astonished. Not even the Dursleys knew this. The letter Dumbledore had written them only contained the information of James and Lily's demise, and that they were Harry's last living relatives, and were to take care of him until he was old enough. The fact that a baby stopped a powerful wizard was quite overwhelming, and Dudley was to be speechless for the next five minutes.

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

**'It's - it's true?' faltered Professor McGonagall. 'After all he's done … all the people he's killed … he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding … of all the things to stop him … but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?'**

**'We can only guess,' said Dumbledore. 'We may never know.'**

'In other words, I know but don't want to tell you.' Hermione said. She got confused looks from everyone.

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, 'Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?'**

**'Yes,' said Professor McGonagall. 'And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?'**

**'I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now.'**

**'You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here?' cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. 'Dumbledore - you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!'**

**'It's the best place for him,' said Dumbledore firmly. 'His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter.'**

'He explained all this through a letter?! How could he?' Hermione exclaimed. Petunia looked miserable. That letter was the worst thing she had ever read in her life. Her parents had died just over a year before that had arrived, and although she hated her sister, she was still the only family she had left besides Vernon. When she found out her sister was dead, finding out from a letter of all things, she was distracted for a month and hardly payed attention to anything.

Vernon just thought this was from the dismay of having 'one of them' in the house. But she really was just feeling terribly guilty that she had never made up with her sister, and now she never could because she was never to see her again.

**'A letter?' repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. 'Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous - a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in future - there will be books written about Harry - every child in our world will know his name!'**

'Wait - Potter's famous? What has the world come to?' Malcolm said disbelievingly, and slightly jealous. He's always wanted to be famous.

'Yes, Harry's famous. He hates it. If they did make a Harry Potter day he would kill the person responsible for it.' Ginny said.

Malcolm couldn't believe the nerve of Potter. He had all this fame, probably money too, and he didn't use it? Malcolm would kill to be in his position.

**'Exactly,' said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. 'It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?'**

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed and then said, 'Yes - yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?' she eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

**'Hagrid's bringing him.'**

**'You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?'**

For a brief moment, Ginny and Hermione glared at the book, as though to make it burst into flames.

**'I would trust Hagrid with my life,' said Dumbledore.**

The young witches went back to normal and smiled.

**'I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place,' said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, 'but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to - what was that?'**

**A low rumbling sound broke the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky - and a huge motorbike fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

The Muggle boys eyes glazed over, daydreaming of having a flying motorbike.

**If the motorbike was huge, it was nothing compared to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild - long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of dustbin lids and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

The witches beamed at this description of Hagrid, Dudley's gang looked astonished at this, trying to imagine anyone being that big, and the Dursleys glowered. They hadn't forgotten the pig's tail incident.

**'Hagrid,' said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. 'At last. And where did you get that motorbike?'**

**'Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir,' said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorbike as he spoke. 'Young Sirius Black lent it me. I've got him sir.'**

**'No problems, were there?'**

**'No, sir - house was almost destroyed but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol.'**

The witches cooed.

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously-shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

'I would have loved to see baby Harry.' Mrs Weasley said and Ginny and Hermione agreed.

**'Is that where -?' whispered Professor McGonagall.**

**'Yes,' said Dumbledore. 'He'll have that scar for ever.'**

**'Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?'**

**'Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in useful. I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London Underground.**

'Once again, too much information, Dumbledore.' Ginny said.

**Well - give him here, Hagrid - we'd better get this over with.'**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned towards the Dursley's house.**

**'Could I - could I say goodbye to him, sir?' asked Hagrid.**

**He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

'Sirius probably would have taken offence to that.' whispered Ginny, and Hermione struggled to stifle giggles.

**'Shhh!' hissed Professor McGonagall. 'You'll wake the Muggles!'**

**'S-s-sorry,' sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. 'But I c-c-can't stand it - Lily an' James dead - an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles -'**

**'Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found,' Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep,**

'He left Harry on a doorstep!' all the witches yelled, furious with Dumbledore's actions.

**took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets and then came back to the other two. For a full minute three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

**'Well,' said Dumbledore finally, 'that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations.'**

**'Yeah,' said Hagrid in a very muffled voice. 'I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall - Professor Dumbledore, sir.'**

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself on to the motorbike and kicked the engine to life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

**'I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall,' said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

Ginny giggled, despite the seriousness of the situation.

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

**'Good luck, Harry,' he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak he was gone.**

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley … He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: 'To Harry Potter - the boy who lived!'**

'Seems like that's the end of the first chapter. How about you say we explore and get used to our rooms a little before moving on to the next one? We can have dinner as well.' Mrs Weasley suggested.

Everyone agreed rather grudgingly because, though some won't admit it, they were eager to get on with the story.

* * *

_Sorry to end it there everyone! I didn't have much time today because I went out bowling with my friends for a girls day out. The Percy Jackson story may or may not be up tomorrow, it's just that I'm at my mum's where she doesn't have Wi-Fi (sad face) so I may not be able to put the next chapter up until Sunday night. Sorry to maybe break my schedule so early on, it just can't be helped! I'll see what I can do though, just don't get your hopes up!_

_Yours Sincerely,_

_MissJackson798_


	3. Chapter Two

_Hi guys! Here it is! I'm so sorry for not following the schedule but I've never been very good with those so let's just dump that… Please don't judge me! It happens to the best of us. Sorry it's so late, I had exams and they are tough, but I did get top of my class for History and Science! Which is surprising because they are too of my least liked subjects… Well hope you enjoyed this one! I wrote it during school when I was supposed to copying notes so be grateful for it! Hope you enjoy!_

Chapter Two

Ginny and Hermione immediately stood up and started to move towards the staircase. They went upstairs and disappeared with the younger boys following them. Mr and Mrs Dursley and Mrs Weasley were left sitting there awkwardly, not looking at each other. 'How about I get started on dinner then?' Mrs Weasley said finally. Mr Dursley's big, purple face started swelling up in rage and Mrs Dursley screeched at her, 'You?! You?! What do you mean you will start getting dinner! This is my house! My kitchen and my food! Your freak hands are not getting my food disgusting and dirty!' Mrs Weasley looked shocked but what made her really angry was when Mrs Dursley said: 'And I bet you don't even know how to cook! You probably just order food from other freak places and just sit around waiting for it, while I have to slave over the stove for hours on end just to feed my family properly!'

Mrs Weasley started to rise from her chair and was practically glowing with rage. No one insulted her cooking, and no one insulted her capability to take of her family. The Dursleys were cowering in their chairs from the look on her face. 'You think I can't cook? Watch me!' she snarled at them, and then with surprising speed, she darted into the kitchen and had her wand out making different ingredients fly around the room. Mrs Dursley immediately streaked after her and was getting ingredients out of the fridge and was only just starting to cut them up when Mrs Weasley was charming her potatoes to peel themselves while she cut up some carrots.

Sounds of rapid chopping and grunts of frustration filled the kitchen. Hermione and Ginny came running into the room, with their wands out, obviously thinking something bad was happening. When they saw the mess in the kitchen and the obvious cook-off that was going down they lowered their wands and went back upstairs, obviously knowing that they couldn't do anything to help.

While all the screaming was going on, when Ginny and Hermione went upstairs, they found their room down the hallway, third on the left, with a gold nameplate on it reading, Ginny and Hermione in fancy lettering. They walked inside and found a large room, split in half depending on individual tastes. On one side was something of a miniature library, with old, mahogany bookshelves lining the walls, filled to the brim with all kinds of books. There was a small bed and dresser along with a large, cedar desk.

The other side was styled exactly like Ginny's was at The Burrow. It was bright. There was a large poster of the Wizarding band the Weird Sisters on one wall an a picture of Gwenog Jones, Captain of the Holyhead Harpies, on the other. A desk stood facing the window which looked out onto the Dursleys backyard. There was also a small bed and dresser, to match Hermione's.

There was a large fireplace and two snug chairs in front of it, which was in the middle of the room. It looked like a slash between, the Burrow, a library, and the Gryffindor common room. There was a door leading off to the right, which led to an en suite. 'I'm just going to go to the bathroom. Be right back.' Hermione said, walking away through the small door.

There was a knock on the door, and Malcolm came striding in, a smug grin on his face. 'I've just been to my room,' he told her. 'It's right across from yours. So if there were to be any late-night visits, it would be completely easy to arrange.' He was still smiling when Ginny broke out into fits of giggles. 'So girl! You looking for a tough, strong man to take care of you?' Malcolm said, still grinning madly. Ginny stared at him for a moment, then burst into a bigger fit of giggles this time, Ginny actually rolling on the floor. Malcolm's grin faded. 'Me … date … you?' Ginny managed to make out, between gasps for breath. Hermione sobered up enough to say, 'Sorry, but I'm taken.'

'Oh yeah? With who?' Malcolm asked incredulously. Ginny stopped laughing and sat on her bed.

'Can't tell you. It would ruin the surprise and suspension. And don't go asking Hermione either. She's got a boyfriend too, who I can tell you, has a very bad temper at times. And no, I'm not going to tell you who he is.' she added at the look on Malcolm's face.

There was sniggering at the door, and Piers, Gordon and Dudley were standing there, laughing at their friends rejection. Hermione came out of the bathroom looking confused.

There was a sudden screeching from downstairs, that sounded considerably like Petunia Dursley, and the girls rushed downstairs into the kitchen, their wands aloft only to find a massive cooking showdown going on. Not feeling any immediate danger, other than the fact that together, Mrs Dursley and Mrs Weasley might burn down the kitchen, they trudged back up the stairs, and locked themselves in their room. They talked about what might be revealed in the books when Mrs Weasley called them down for dinner.

On the dining table where plates and plates, filled with mashed potatoes, pot roast, mince pies, egg rolls, and anything else you can imagine. It looked much like the Great Hall in the way of options. In a small corner of the table was a few small plates filled with spaghetti and meatballs.

The girls sat down at the table and started to dig into Mrs Weasley's delicious food, while the boys were trying to not be tempted by and just accept the pathetic excuse for spaghetti on their plates. Mrs Weasley kept mumbling something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like think I can't cook… while Mrs Dursley kept her head held high, not admitting her defeat. Eventually Gordon gave in and reached for a mince pie, and soon all of Dudley's gang, excluding Dudley, who was trying to be loyal to his parents, were grabbing every bit of food they could get their hands on.

After dinner was finished and cleared away with a flick of Mrs Weasley's wand, everyone went back into the living-room. They all retook their seats and the book once again flipped to the right page and started to talk in Luna Lovegood's dreamy voice.

**Chapter Two: The Vanishing Glass**

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.**

'Well that's boring!' Ginny exclaimed, but Mrs Weasley shushed her.

**The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bonnets,**

**Piers and Gordon snickered. Dudley glared at them.**

**but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**  
**"Up! Get up! Now!"**

'What a lovely way to wake up.' Hermione noted angrily.

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**  
**"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

**His aunt was back outside the door.**

**"Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

**"Nearly," said Harry.**

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

**Harry groaned.**

**"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

**"Nothing, nothing…"**

**Dudley's birthday — how could he have forgotten? Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

'WHAT!' Ginny and her mother screamed. Hermione sighed.

'Harry told me a few years ago but he told me not to tell anyone, because he knew this was how you'd react.' Hermione said quietly.

The red-headed witches huffed, but remained silent, while Malcolm was wondering whether Potter was the one Hermione was going out with. But then he dismissed that thought because Potter couldn't get a dirty sock to go out with him, much less a hot babe like that. Ginny was fuming and kept sending the Dursleys looks that could kill. They cowered in their seats.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise**  
**unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favourite punching bag was Harry,**

Ginny started grinding her teeth.

**but he couldn't often catch him.**  
**Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

'It comes in handy a lot.' Hermione said, smiling sadly.

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright-green eyes. He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Sellotape tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

**The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**  
**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.**

**"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."**

'You told him his parents died in a car crash?' Ginny shouted, all her fury aimed at Mrs Dursley. 'You didn't even have the decency to tell him that his parents were actually murdered!'

'Don't talk to my wife that wa-' Vernon started to scream but Petunia waved him down.

'It's fine I deserve it.' she said. Everyone was shocked into silence, and the book took this as a cue to keep reading.

**Don't ask questions — that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

**"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting. About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way — all over the place.**

'And doesn't Ginny know it.' said Hermione smirking. Ginny was blushing right to the roots of her hair.

Gordon looked confused. 'Why would Ginny know that?' he asked the girls.

'Because every time I've caught her and Harry snogging in the backyard, or somewhere, she's always running her hands through his hair.' Hermione replied calmly. Mrs Weasley's eyebrows went up.

There was a big uproar from the Muggles besides Dudley. Half of them screamed 'WHAT!' while the other half screamed 'No way did Potter get a girl like you!'. (The last one mainly being Malcolm.)

Ginny turned to Hermione, still blushing madly. 'You had to tell them about me and Harry didn't you? I was going to keep them in suspense until the books told us! I didn't tell them you were going out with Ron!' she said. Hermione just smiled in apology.

'Sorry?' she said.

'Wait, so how did Potter manage to trick you into dating him?' Piers exclaimed, but eager to know the secret.

Ginny's face contorted with fury and turned towards him. 'If you really want to know, I was the one pining on him. For most of my life actually. He's the one that decided to go out with me.' Ginny told him.

The muggles looked at her in confusion, not being able to believe, or think why, she would want to date Potter.

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.**  
**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

Everyone laughed, except for the Dursleys and Mrs Weasley, who was thinking about how Fred would have found that funny. No one saw the single tear slide down her cheek.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

**"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

'You get thirty-six presents? I get two and they're usually hand-me-downs from family.' Ginny said. Suddenly Hermione laughed and whispered something in Ginny's ear. Ginny smirked and said, 'Oh, and did I forget to mention? I have six- five older brothers, so you kind of want to think twice about using me. Harry's lucky my family like him so much.' Ginny started off happy, went sad and then tried to cheer herself up at the thought of Harry.

Dudley's gang gaped at her and Mrs Weasley, thinking they should lay off on the pick-up-lines.

**"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."**

**"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"**

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"**

'He can't even count! What kind of mother are you?' Mrs Weasley exclaimed, shocked that someone could raise their child so badly.

**"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled.**

**"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

'And you!' Mrs Weasley pointed her finger threateningly in Vernon's face. 'You encourage that behaviour!' she sat back in her chair fuming.

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a cine-camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a video recorder.**  
**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch**

'Harry's one is probably better.' Hermione murmured to Ginny. Ginny giggled.

**when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs Figg **  
**made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this.**  
**Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr Paws, and Tufty again.**

'Oh Harry.' Hermione said, laughing lightly.

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

**"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there — or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?"**

**"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

Vernon started muttering about sneaks and thieves, and glared at the book, wishing he could strangle Harry.

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**  
**"And come back and find the house in ruins?" he snarled.**

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car…"**

**"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone…"**

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

**"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

**"I… don't… want… him… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

Dudley had the courtesy to look sheepish, but no one saw the reluctant high-five he gave Piers.

**Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.**

Everyone laughed again. 'I love Harry's descriptions!' Ginny managed to get out between breaths.

**He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's,**

'That sounds pleasant.' said Hermione disgustedly.

**"I'm warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…"**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.**

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

'Accidental magic! I've always wanted to hear about someone else's! It's interesting to see whether they'll differ or not!' Guess who said that.

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his fringe, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."**

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and sellotaped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.**

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

'That's not fair! You know about accidental magic Petunia!' said person flinched at the use of her first name from this stranger. 'What with Lily doing it and all! You know Harry couldn't help it.' Hermione exclaimed. Petunia, who would normally have shouted at this girl for being so rude, sat there and stared at the floor, not wanting to think of her sister, in case it reduces her to tears once again.

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange bobbles).**  
**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a glove puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**  
**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.**

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects.**

'I'm getting the feeling he doesn't like Harry.' Ginny said. Vernon scowled, while everyone, excluding Petunia, Dudley and Mrs Weasley, laughed.

**This morning, it was motorbikes.**

**"… roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorbike overtook them.**

**"I had a dream about a motorbike," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a moustache, "MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!"**  
**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

**"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

'Knowing Potter, he probably will.' Malcolm muttered. The gang sniggered.

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice lolly. It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting him.**  
**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory wasn't big enough, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.**

**Harry felt, afterwards, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

'And there's the pessimism we've been waiting for.' Ginny said sadly.

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

**"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.**

**It winked.**

'And Harry was surprised to find out he was a Parselmouth.' Hermione muttered to Ginny. No one else heard them, everyone else was staring at the book in shock, wanting to know what happens next. They heard of the snake escaping but not of how it actually happened.

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

Hermione shook her head fondly at Harry's actions.

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time."**

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

_**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**_

**"Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?"**

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.**

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor.**  
**What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**  
**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo."**

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**  
**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was **  
**swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.**

**But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

The three witches groaned, Piers just had to mess everything up didn't he?

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

'Good-for-nothing brat, trying to steal our food!' Vernon muttered darkly under his breath.

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died.**

**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

'I still can't believe he remembers that.' Hermione said sadly.

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from.**  
**He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family.**

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.**

**A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley.**

**After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

'It's called Apparition Harry.' Mrs Weasley said fondly.

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

'Looks like that's the end of the chapter.' Dudley said.

The book started to read again.

**Chapter Three: The Letters From No One**

* * *

_There it is! Hope you liked it, and sorry again for not going to follow the schedule, it's just hard with school and all. I don't know how other authors manage. R & R and constructive criticism is appreciated! The next chapter will be up hopefully soon, but it will be up a lot quicker if anyone knows a website where I can find the full book so I don't have to completely type it up? Anyway tell me in a review!_


	4. Chapter Three

_Here it is! Hope you like it and I have put more responses from the characters into the story. I had some complaints about the last chapter… Constructive criticism always helps though :) On with the story!_

* * *

**The escape of the boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started**

'Wait. You did let Harry out for school, right?' Mrs Weasley asked the Muggles. Petunia was about to talk when Vernon did for her. 'Of course!' he said. Mrs Weasley relaxed noticeably. That was until she heard what he said next. 'They would have noticed if the brat was missing, and questions in our situation are a very bad idea.' Vernon gave the red-headed witch a malicious smile.

**and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs Figg as she crossed Privet Drive in her crutches.**

'Are you serious? That's horrible!' Hermione said. Dudley looked down guiltily, surprising his friends.

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis,**

'Where is Dennis anyway?' Malcolm asked.

'I think his mum caught him with some vodka and he was sent off to some military school.' Piers replied, shrugging.

**Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

'I'm so gonna pummel Potter next time I see him.' Malcolm muttered angrily. Gordon silently agreed.

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry Hunting.**

Ginny growled and Hermione gave her a warning look.

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley.**

'That is so much more true than he could have ever known.' Hermione whispered to Ginny and Ginny giggled, earning some weird looks from the Muggles.

**Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings.**

Ginny burst out laughing and it took Mrs Weasley and some looks of loathing from Vernon to calm her down. _(A/N I don't think the looks would have affected her, but I see it as reminding her that they're reading a book about her favourite person :))_

**Piers Polkiss was going there too.**

**Harry on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school.**

The young witches grinned.

**Dudley thought this was very funny.**

**'They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall,' he told Harry. 'Want to come upstairs and practice?'**

Dudley frowned, remembering what Harry had said next. It took him ten minutes to figure it out, and then he couldn't even find Harry to get him back.

**'No, thanks,' said Harry. 'The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it - it might be sick.' Then he ran before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

Everyone - besides the Dursleys - howled with laughter.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs Figg's. Mrs Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

Ginny crinkled her nose. 'Eww…' she said. _Note-to-self: Don't give red-headed hottie out-dated chocolate._ Malcolm thought in his mind.

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters.**

'And Muggles say we have weird clothes.' Ginny said, shaking her head. Hermione and Mrs Weasley privately agreed.

**They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

Mrs Weasley shook her head at these Muggles stupidity. Raising kids like this was not going to end up well.

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins,**

Dudley's gang and the two young witches snorted. Petunia huffed.

**he looked so handsome and grown-up. Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He already thought two of ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

Ginny giggled. Thinking the she would probably have done the same.

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink.**

'If this is more of her bad cooking, I swear I'll…' Mrs Weasley trailed off, muttering more insults to the woman sitting across from her.

**He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water.**

**'What's this?' he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

**'Your new school uniform,' she said.**

'Why does it have to be wet?' Ginny asked. Petunia stared at her. Maybe this girl is suited for the boy - Harry - after all.

**Harry looked in the bowl again. 'Oh,' he said, 'I didn't realise it had to be so wet.'**

Ginny blushed as Hermione giggled. Mrs Weasley smiled fondly and the Muggles looked at Ginny disgustedly. Well, except for Malcolm, who was plotting ways of trying to steal her from Potter.

**'Don't be stupid,' snapped Aunt Petunia. 'I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things grey for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished.' Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High - like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

The witches smiled sadly, thinking of how pessimistic Harry could get.

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table. They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.**

**'Get the mail, Dudley,' said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

'You parents actually asked you to do something? It's a miracle!' Hermione said sarcastically, surprising everyone because she was usually so quiet.

**'Make Harry get it.'**

**'Get the mail, Harry.'**

'The world is right once again.' Ginny said. Hermione giggled then a thoughtful look came over her.

'You said Harry's name!' she exclaimed. Vernon growled. Luckily it was the only time he ever messed up like that.

**'Make Dudley get it.'**

**'Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley.'**

Mrs Weasley frowned at that.

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge,**

Hermione suddenly let out a small laugh, remembering Harry telling her what had happened to his aunt. Everyone else in the room looked at her like she'd gone crazy.

**who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and - a letter for Harry.**

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band.**

Piers snorted.

**No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would?**

The three witches felt bad that Harry had to go through thinking no one would want to talk to him when there were probably thousands of letters sent his way that were intercepted by the Ministry.

**He had no friends, no other relatives - he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

_**Mr H. Potter**_

_**The Cupboard under the Stairs**_

_**4 Privet Drive**_

_**Little Whinging**_

_**Surrey**_

'Bet you a Galleon it's his Hogwarts letter.' Ginny whispered to Hermione. Hermione shook her head.

'It's too obvious it is, I'm definitely not taking you up on that.'

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.**

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms: a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.**

'Yes! I knew it!' Ginny got up and did a little happy dance. Everyone was looking at her weirdly. She just stuck her tongue out at them and sat back down.

**'Hurry up, boy!' shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. 'What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?' He chuckled at his own joke.**

Everyone winced as the horrible joke was made and the witches started thinking of how Fred and George would have been able to make that funny. The witches went into a depressed sort of stupor that the Muggles ignored. The book kept reading.

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.**

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust and flipped over the postcard.**

**'Marge's ill,' he informed Aunt Petunia. 'Ate a funny whelk…'**

**'Dad!' said Dudley suddenly. 'Dad, Harry's got something!'**

'He was on the verge of opening possibly the most important letter of his life, and you just had to ruin it for him, didn't you?' Hermione said with a frown. When Dudley shrugged her frown deepened.

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

**'That's mine!' said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

**'Who'd be writing to you?' sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the greyish white of old porridge.**

The girls wrinkled their noses in disgust while Dudley's gang laughed, then stopped realising it was Potter who had said that.

**'P-P-Petunia!' he gasped. Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

'Drama-queen!' Ginny coughed, causing Hermione to break out into giggles.

'**Vernon! Oh my goodness - Vernon!' They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

'You hit your dad? And got away with it?' said Malcolm disbelievingly. He high-fived Dudley who avoided Mrs Weasley's disappointing eyes.

**'I want to read that letter,' he said loudly.**

**'I want to read it,' said Harry furiously, 'as it's mine.'**

**'Get out, both of you,' croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope. Harry didn't move.**

**'I WANT MY LETTER!' he shouted.**

'And there's the famous Potter temper.' said Ginny fondly. Hermione winced.

'It's not fun being on the receiving end of that, though.' she said.

**'Let me see it!' demanded Dudley.**

**'OUT!' roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them.**

**Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole;**

'Potter actually tried to fight you? He usually just submits.' Gordon said. He was about to say more when there was another bright flash of light and a letter landed on his head. Piers took it and read out loud:

_Okay guys! No matter how much I love listening to what you guys think of Harry, you need to stop with the interruptions! This book I'm hoping you guys finish before your third day here! That is all._

_MGJ_

Gordon looked down sheepishly while Petunia agreed with the mysterious MGJ.

**Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor.**

**'Vernon,' Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, 'look at the address - how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?'**

**'watching - spying - might be following us,' muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

'Yes. Because we magic folk have nothing better to do than stalk you people all day long.' Ginny said sarcastically. Petunia glared at her and Ginny glared right back but stayed quiet.

**'But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want -' Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

**'No,' he said finally. 'No we'll ignore it. I f they don't get an answer … Yes, that's best … we won't do anything …'**

'I can't believe you thought that would work.' said Mrs Weasley, who continued to mumble about silly Muggles.

**'But - '**

**'I'm not having one in the house Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that nonsense?'**

'What exactly do you mean by stamp out?' Mrs Weasley said threateningly. Hermione sighed.

'Mrs Weasley, please remember that this has already happened and Harry would not want you to dwell on it.' she said.

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

**'Where's my letter?' said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door.**

**'Who's writing to me?'**

**'No one. It was addressed to you by mistake.,' said Uncle Vernon shortly. 'I have burned it.'**

'Because that's not suspicious at all.' Piers snorted. Vernon turned at glared at the boy.

**'It was not a mistake,' said Harry angrily. 'it had my cupboard on it.'**

**'SILENCE!' yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful. 'Er - yes, Harry - about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking… you're really getting a bit big for it… we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.**

'You had two bedrooms, and Harry still had to sleep in a cupboard?' asked Ginny incredulously. Dudley looked down in shame but Vernon stared Ginny down in defiance. That was until she gave him her famous death stare. He shrunk back in his chair like the coward he was.

**'Why?' said Harry.**

**'Don't ask questions!' snapped his uncle. 'Take this stuff upstairs, now.'**

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken.**

_Of course it was_ thought Hermione, but she was too polite to say it, even to Harry's idiot cousin.

**The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbours dog; in the corner was Dudley's first ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favourite program ad been cancelled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it.**

**Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

Hermione glanced up in shock. She saw that as sacrilege!

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother.**

**'I don't want him in there … I need that room … make him get out …' Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed.**

**Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

Ginny sighed. She really does love Harry, but he tends to dwell on his past mistakes a little bit too much. That doesn't stop him being the greatest guy ever though.

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back.**

'What type of person have you raised?' Mrs Weasley asked, furious that some people could be such bad parents.

**Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly. When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, 'There's another one! Mr H. Potter. The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive -'**

'Dude, why would you tell them if you wanted to read it?' Gordon asked Dudley. He got a shrug in reply.

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind.**

'Woo! Go Harry!' Ginny shouted. She got a glare from Petunia to be quiet and strange looks from everyone else, even the witches.

**After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

**'Go to your cupboard - I mean, your bedroom,' he wheezed at Harry. 'Dudley - go - just go.'**

**Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had plan.**

'Oh, here we go.' Hermione mumbled. The Muggles looked at her wondering what she meant by that.

**The repaired alarm clock rand at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights. He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door -**

**'AAAAARRRGH!' Harry leapt into the air, he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat - something alive!**h

Vernon scowled, remembering this.

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror, Harry realized that the bi, squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

Everyone roared with laughter at that.

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

**'I want - ' he began,**

'That boy deserves nothing! He is an ungrateful brat and shouldn't be allowed to have anything joyful out of life. With the pain he's caused us!' Vernon realized he was shouting at a book and huffed back into his seat. Ginny was fuming. She was about to shout back when the book, which sensed a fight coming on, kept reading.

**but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes. Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up he mail slot. 'See,' he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, 'if they can't deliver them they'll just give up.'**

**'I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon.'**

**'Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia; they're not like you and me,'**

'And aren't we glad for that!' said Ginny, causing Hermione to burst out into a fit of giggles.

**said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with a piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

Everyone looked at Vernon quizzically, he just ignored them.

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom. Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

Everyone in the room edged away from Vernon slightly, for he was fuming in his seat from the description the boy was giving him.

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two-dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.**

**'Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?' Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

'You'd be surprised how many people want to talk to Harry.' Ginny said, looking pointedly at the Muggles.

**On Sunday Morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

**'No post on Sundays,' he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers,**

'What?' said Piers. Everyone just looked at Vernon quizzically. Well, except for Petunia, who was glaring at them all for interrupting the book.

**'no damn letters today -' Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty of forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one - 'Out! OUT!' Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

**'That does it,' said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his moustache at the same time. 'I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!' He looked so dangerous without half his moustache missing that no one dared argue.**

Everyone snorted.

**Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffing in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

Mrs Weasley shook her head at Vernon. She couldn't believe he'd actually hit his child for something as trivial as that.

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. 'Shake 'em off … shake 'em off,' he would mutter whenever he did this. They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up and alien on his computer.**

'Spoilt brat.' you could hear Ginny mumbling.

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the window-sill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering…**

'Wondering what?' Malcolm blurted out. He was met with glares for interrupting the book.

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table. ''Scuse me, but is one of you Mr H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk.' She held up a leter so they could read the green ink address:**

_**Mr H. Potter**_

_**Room 17**_

_**Railview Hotel**_

_**Cokeworth**_

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked is hand out of the way. The woman stared. 'I'll take them,' said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.**

**'Wouldn't it be better to go home, dear?' Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her.**

'Your dad was crazy, wasn't he?' Gordon whispered to Dudley. Dudley just scowled in reply.

**Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a ploughed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage.**

**'Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?' Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon.**

Vernon scowled at his son.

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared. It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled.**

**'It's Monday,' he told his mother. 'The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television.'**

_What a brat…_ Ginny thought to herself.

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday — and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television — then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday.**

'Happy Birthday Harry!' Ginny exclaimed, much to the amusement of the other witches. The Muggles looked at her strangely as she was talking to a book.

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun — last year; the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.**

Ginny scowled at the Dursleys.

**Still, you weren't eleven every day. Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought. **

**'Found the perfect place!' he said.**

'Doubt it.' Hermione muttered bitterly to Ginny.

**'Come on! Everyone out!' It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain; there was no television in there.**

Everyone laughed except Dudley, who scowled.

**'Storm forecast for tonight!' said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. 'And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!' A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-grey water below them.**

**'I've already got us some rations,' said Uncle Vernon, 'so all aboard!'**

'You actually made your family get into that?' Mrs Weasley shook her head at this man's stupidity.

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms. Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas.**

The witches scowled. No one could call that proper food. Dudley privately agreed.

**He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shrivelled up. 'Could do with some of those letters now, eh?' he said cheerfully. He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.**

'Oh, Harry.' Hermione said fondly.

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few mouldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

The witches glared daggers at the muggles.

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger.**

Que more glares.

**Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.**

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did. Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.**

'A rare moment of optimism from Mr Harry Potter!' Ginny exclaimed and sent Hermione into a large round of giggles.

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea? One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds… twenty… ten… nine — maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him**

'DO IT!' Ginny and Hermione screamed but they were immediately shushed by Mrs Weasley.

** — three … two … one …**

**BOOM.**

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

'That was dramatic.' said Gordon. Suddenly Piers yawned and Mrs Dursley shrieked.

'Off to bed all of you! Your mothers will wring my neck if she finds out you've been up this late!' Dudley started whining. 'But mum! One more chapter? Please? I'm really getting into this book!' He told her. Petunia's expression softened while Vernon's took on a look of rage.

'What do you mean you're liking it? How can you like anything about that filth?' He was about to continue yelling at his son but Ginny had gotten up and slapped hard across the face.

'Never talk about Harry like that again.' she said and spat in his face. Petunia started shrieking insults at the 'freaks' and it soon evolved into a full screaming war between the muggles and witches. But Mrs Weasley had enough of wars. She stood up walked dejectedly and walked up the stairs to her room. Everyone in the living room watched her in stunned silence.

'We'll keep reading tomorrow. I'm tired.' Ginny said and followed her mother up the stairs. One by one, the rest made their way to their rooms and went to sleep. But Ginny's mind was to restless for her to sleep. She couldn't stop thinking about Fred and something told her that her mum couldn't either.

She made her way down the hall to her mothers bedroom and snuck in, quietly closing the door behind her. At first Ginny thought her mother was already asleep but when she saw her body shaking with silent sobs she knew that her mother shouldn't be alone. Ginny lifted up the covers and slipped into the bed. She took her mother into her arms and held her, murmuring comforting words as she did so.

Everyone knew that Fred's death was the hardest on George, who didn't even look at himself in the mirror for fear he would break down but they also knew why his mother hadn't gone to comfort him. She couldn't stand looking at him, the exact replica of Fred in almost every way. No one blamed her, especially not George, but Mrs Weasley's body shook with the guilt of leaving every time he came in room and she let it all out with these sobs.

Eventually her and Ginny both fell into an uneasy sleep. The two Weasley ladies had never bonded better than they had that night and they were both just relieved that they had each other while they were stuck here in this stranger's home.


End file.
